Church of Zion

Wilbur Glenn Voliva (1870-1942) took over leadership of the Church, which became the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion.

Voliva taught his 6000 followers the Flat Earth model within a Biblical framework.. His 100,000 watt radio station broadcast his diatribes against round
earth astronomy, and the evils of evolution. In its early years, Zion was a one-religion community and a Scottish lace industry.

Size & Shape

Voliva in 1932. Voliva declared that the Bible was his entire scientific library. Astronomers were 'ignorant fools'. The sun, he said,
was only three thousand miles away, and only thirty-two miles in diameter.

Just Before Voliva took control , Scotsman John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907) brought these ideas to America in 1888, where he founded
the Christian Catholic
Church in Chicago. Dowie was a faith healer, and the journal Leaves of
Healing was the official publication of the church. The church grew rapidly, and Dowie realized his dream of founding a christian
community in 1901, the Zion community located on the Lake Michigan shore, 40 miles north of Chicago.